Davy’s buys El Vino’s

[jdaw1]

The FT reports that Davy’s has bought El Vino’s.

[DRT]

I hope they keep the brand and the character or these wine bars - very different to Davy's and complimentary in the market.

PS: Not a great idea to link to subscription-only articles

[Alex Bridgeman]

I wonder if they have also bought the stocks of El Vino? I might run down to a couple of the El Vino stores when I am next in London and see what they have available through their off-licenses. Last time I was in (which was about 6 months ago) they were still offering Fonseca 1977 and Taylor 1992 (and other stuff I forget).

[jdaw1]

Not a great idea to link to subscription-only articles

Agreed. Can I be forgiven my failure to do better with Tapatalk?

An era has ended for those who remember the heyday of Fleet Street: its most notorious wine bar, El Vino, has been sold.

Davy’s, the family-owned wine merchant, has bought El Vino’s five outposts for an undisclosed sum.

Anthony Mitchell, a member of the fourth generation of the family that founded El Vino in 1879, said he was happy the bar would be in “such good hands” and “confident that our customers will enjoy a seamless transition”.

James Davy noted that his family and the Mitchells had spent a combined 281 years in the wine trade.

El Vino had an impressive pedigree. It was founded by Sir Alfred Bower, who eventually became Lord Mayor of London. Under the stewardship of his nephew, Frank Bower, it became a haunt for journalists and lawyers during the golden age of Fleet Street.

The management insisted on a strict dress code for men and banished women to a back room until a court case in 1982, brought by the journalist Anna Coote, succeeded in winning a discrimination case at the Appeal Court.

Lord Justice Griffiths said that by excluding female journalists from the bar, they might be prevented from “picking up the gossip of the day”, to the detriment of their careers.

Paul Bracken, the manager at the time, initially continued to refuse to serve Ms Coote and said it was a “very sad day” for El Vino’s “where old-fashioned ideals of chivalry still flourish”. The feminist protest against El Vino’s was mocked by many on Fleet Street as a “storm in a sherry glass”.

El Vino’s dress code, which dictated ties for male drinkers and skirts for women, also came under attack. According to one story, when a celebrated transvestite appeared in a trouser suit and blouse, the manager ruled: “If it’s a man, it’s not wearing a tie. If it’s a woman, it’s not wearing a skirt. She’ll have to go.”

The dress code for women was eventually amended to include culottes after one customer arrived wearing a skirt fashioned out of a stained tablecloth in protest.

Some journalists, such as Hugh Cudlipp, the editor of the Daily Mirror, were banned for bad behaviour while Charles Wintour, the editor of the Evening Standard, was reminded by his proprietor Lord Beaverbrook that “you will find no news stories in El Vino’s public house”.

[DRT]

Not a great idea to link to subscription-only articles

Agreed. Can I be forgiven my failure to do better with Tapatalk?

You are forgiven.

[djewesbury]

Interesting stories in the FT piece. I know a man – a journalist - whose uncle was the manager, and who got him a job there to augment his salary as a young staffer at the Mirror. When Cap'n Bob went overboard all those years ago, the MGN journalists came in and proceeded to empty the place of all their cases of champagne.